* Heat some oil in the pan then add in garlic , stir fry until golden brown , add in the beef , fry until it changes color . Transfer to a plate and set aside .
* In the same pan , add in ginger , fry until fragrant , than add in onion and carrots , fry until soft . Add in the snow peas , stir just to combine , also add in salt , pepper , chicken powder and a splash of water ( not too much , just to moisten , you don't want the peas to be too soft ) , then add in the fried beef , adjust taste .

* Pour in the cornstarch mixture , stir well to combine then toss in the celery , give another stir then dish up .

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I don't know why we call it cheesecake ice cream when there's no cake in it heh! So anyway , it's a cool 22°C this morning and that didn't stop me tasting er slurping a big scoop hee hee at 7 am tsk :P :D , hey ! I need to take photo of it anyway hahahaha

For the blueberry purée :

2 cups blueberries ( I use frozen so I let it stand for a while to defrost )
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
40 grams sugar ( or more if your berries not sweet enough )

* Dump all the ingredients above in the saucepan and let simmer until berries pop and soften . Turn off heat when the mixture thickens and let cool .
* Pour in the mixture in the food processor or blender and process until smooth . Put in the fridge for later use .

* Put all the ingredients above into the food processor or blender to blend until smooth then add in 2 1/2 T of blueberry purée , mix until well combined .
* Refrigerate the mixture until well chilled . Churn .
* After churning , put half of the ice cream into the container and add your purée , smoothing it carefully then add the rest of the ice cream . Using a knife or the handle of the wooden spoon , stir through the ice cream 2 or 3 times to ripple the flavours together ( uhm I blend it too much I guess :P;D ) . Freeze overnight .

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

So I bought a claypot though I'd been leery of using it as I've read online about some of these claypot crack while cooking . I told myself ( I'm always doing that heh ! ) nothing ventured , nothing gained :D , since the one I bought cost only HK12. , about 1.5 US , why not try and if it crack , well , transfer it to the rice cooker , problem solved ! I prep the pot by submerging it in the water for more than 30 minutes , few hours before I use it . And yup , it didn't crack at all :D The topping is not the one you'll see most of the time when you eat claypot rice here , instead of your typical minced pork & salted fish or pork ribs with black beans or the dried sausages , here , I tried cooking it with diced taro , chicken pieces and salted chinese olives and it tasted just as good - but don't take my word for it , since I love chinese food hee hee I use Annie Leong's claypot rice recipe from her book At Home With Annie and the topping from Lisa Yam's cookbook ( no Amazon's listing :( ) Quick and Easy Meals , I changed the cooking method of how to cook the topping .

1. Wash rice in cold water , rubbing the grains gently with your fingers . Drain the rice using fine sieve . Marinate the rice with salt , vinegar and oil .
2. Place rice and water in the claypot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat , around 5 minutes . .
3. Once the water starts to bubble vigorously , lower the hear to it's minimum setting and give rice a good stir ; scrape bottom , cover and simmer for 5 minutes .
4. Take off the lid after 5 minutes ; give rice another good stir and add your toppings ; cover .
5 . Simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes . Add the shredded ginger and chinese olives . Switch off heat and let rice rest in the claypot for 5 minutes . Serve piping hot .

* Dice chicken breast , put in seasoning and mix well . Panfry until half done , set aside .
* In the same pan , stir-fry chopped ginger and sliced shallot until fragrant . Add dice taro and add about a 100 ml water ( adding more if the taro is still hard ) . Cover and let simmer for a while until taro soften but still have a little bit of liquid in the mixture , adjust taste and add in the half-cooked chicken , stir until well combined , turn off heat and keep warm until you add the mixture to the rice .

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Or my bastardized version :P :D No flour added instead I use constarch as thickener and I forgot to buy button mushroom tsk . I also boil the potato and carrot beforehand . Omit , substitute or adjust ingredients to suit your taste .

* Panfry chicken until lightly brown then add onion , stir until slightly soften .
* Add in the bell pepper(s) , potato & carrot , stir to combine , then add in the water . Cover and simmer for a while until half of the water evaporates . Immediately pour in the milk and stir to combine , adjust taste . Add in the constarch mixture and stir until the sauce thickens . Toss in the chopped cilantro . Dish up .

Don't mind the same plate I'd been using over and over again pftttt

If you have some leftover why don't you bake it ? Here , I dump the leftover over heh! rice and dotted it with my fried pork sausage and bake it to have a baked chicken rice .

Friday, October 21, 2011

That surely grab your attention hahahaha Actually it's not the name of the cookie recipe that I use from Dorie Greeenspan's book . She qoutes " if Mr Wonka had a soda fountain , I'd bet these cookies would be on his menu ". Now , if you have that book or seen some of the blogs that made these cookies , when you see mine , you'll think huh ! there is no way that cookies resembled anything to what I've seen in that book - I couldn't agree more *sigh* Mine are thin it looks anorexic tsk tsk and the color looks as if I overcooked it . I overbeat the batter as usual , that's why the cookies deflated when I took it out from the oven . I don't know if my using of dutch processed cocoa's the reason why I had that too brown looking cookies . I'd so many complaint that I'm not about to blab er blog about these cookies at all . Well , there's one good reason why you're reading it here hee hee TASTE , it's the yummiest cookies I'd ever baked - yeah yeah that's what I always said when I bake cookies heh ! Just check out the ingredients or better yet try to bake it yourself ......

* Preheat to oven to 350°F/180°C . Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats .
* Sift together the flour , malted milk powder , cocoa , baking powder and salt .
* Working with a stand mixer , preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl , beat butter and sugar together on med speed for about 3 minutes , until very smooth . Add eggs one at a time , beating for 1 minute after each addition . Beat in vanilla ; don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled - it will even out when the dry ingredients are added . Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients , mixing just until they disappear into the batter . Mix in the milk , then the remaining dry ingredients , mixing only until they are incorporated . The batter will look more like fudge frosting than a cookie dough - and that's fine . With the mixer on low , or by hand with a rubber spatula , mix in the malted milk balls and chopped chocolate .
* Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the sheets , leaving about 2 inches of space in between spoonfuls . Bake for 11 to 13 minutes , rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 6 minutes . When done , the cookies will be puffed and set but slightly soft to the touch . Let cookies rest for 2 minutes before transferring it to the cooling racks .

Yield : about 30 but mine's nearly 40

THIN IS NOT IN ugh !

The overbeaten batter pfttttt

I ate some of the maltesers that's why I added some white chocolate :P

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Went to Tim Ho Wan again . One of the most popular dimsum restaurant in town , well , more of a hole in the wall place than a Chinese resto . Arrived there before 6 pm and there's a already a queue outside but not much . Good thing we were there first before a contingent heh! of Japanese tourist arrived , 15 of them ! Lucky us hahahha Nothing special except the baked pork buns , that's the main reason I kept coming back and best of all it's CHEAP !

* Fry garlic until slightly brown then add the belacan , stir until soft and fragrant :D Cool a little bit .
* Put sliced chillies , fried belacan , sugar and lemon juice in the food processor ( I still don't have a mortar and pestle pfttttt ) and processed till smooth .
* Dump the mixture back into the pan and stir until almost all the liquid evaporates then add in the oil . Done . HEAVEN : D

How thou I love thee ? Let me count the ways hee hee

Her Stinkyness

Homemade Pork Sausage

300 grams ground /minced pork

scant tablespoon paprika

1/2 tbsp chilli powder

1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 generous tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 tbsp chicken powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

* Mix it all together and chill overnight .

* Rub a little bit oil in your hands ( to prevent sticking ) , divide the mixture into several portion and shape it into small logs .

Friday, October 14, 2011

Here's another easy recipe your family will love . Add more veggies like brocolli , cauliflower , sweet peas , carrots etc . Omit the chilli bean sauce if desired . I'm just winging it ( which I usually do ) when I made that dish coz I'm too lazy ( most of the time ) to measure the ingredients :D . Recipe from the book Authentic Homestyle Cuisine by K.S Lee .

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

This photo was taken months ago but I have a sudden craving when I saw someone's blogging/featuring about my fave Biscocho , a baked ( sliced ) bread topped with butter and sugar ^o^ You gotta taste it to believe it . It's nearly the Masskara festival in my hometown , Bacolod City , so if you're going there , try this deliciousness hahahaha

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I've been gearing myself up to make frozen yogurt but as always something or other will come up tsk tsk . So after weeks of dreaming that frozen yogurt , I finally made it er but not really froyo pftttt ^o^ . To think with all the time lurking online , besides salivating over some yummy food blogs , checking out Macy's and Target site ( a moot point since I'm so far away from the US of A , sighing with all that kitchen goodies that's very affordable compare here grrrrr , case in point that gorgeous Silpat , size 11x16 here cost a whopping HK$250 , 'nuff said :P ) I got a time to check how many cups could I get if I drain a tub of yogurt *sigh* . I just planning to make half of the recipe , I thought I could get 1 cup and a half out of that 1 tub , obviously not hahahah Note to self : 1 tub ( 475 g ) plain yogurt , ( drained several hours to get that gorgeous greek-style yogurt consistency ) = 250 ml / 1 cup only heh ! That's what I get because as always I'm too cheap to buy the real greek-style yogurt hee hee I told myself to buy another tub and drain it but had to wait again for another day to make it ( we don't have a greek-style yogurt in our area ) . I already had all the ingredients , I got a 2 punnets of blueberries and also bought 3 mango ( Philippine mango , of course :D ) , but the mango won hands down coz of it's gorgeous color ^-^" , except not enough yogurt . But because neccessity is the mother of invention or in my case , substitution hee hee I plowed ahead and got these gorgeous result , doing a happy dance now ..........

* Dump the mango and sugar into food processor to purée ( or you can use blender so that you can dump all the other ingredients after you processed the mango and sugar ) , then add the zest and the juice , adjust taste according to your preference ( by adding more sugar , note that yogurt is tangy ) . I use our mini food processor , so there's not enough space to add the cream & yogurt , so I transfer the mango mixture to a big glass container and add in the remaining ingredients , using a wire whisk to combine the mixture thoroughly . Chill for an hour , or more if you like . Churn ( 40 minutes ) . Take some photos :D :D :D . YUM !!!!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Make a difference even in a small way . When you go to you local supermarket , check out products with a Fairtrade logo esp if you buy coffee , chocolate , tea , spices even wine and clothing . Or check out your local Oxfam .

Thursday, October 6, 2011

I've been dying to bake this for a long time . I tend to think mango as a filling , topping , making it into milkshake or ice cream but not as main ingredient in a ( baked ) cake ^-^" . So , when I saw this recipe from Dorie Greeenspan's book that I borrowed ( as always :D ) from the library , and think why not . Obviously , 'tis not the mango season , but there's still some mango from the Philippines ( it's the BEST hee hee ) in our wet market . It's more a cake than a bread though and that's the way I like it :D . Instead of raisins , I use dessicated coconut because I love the chewiness and crunchiness it gives to a baked goods .

* Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C . Butter an 8 1/2 -x-4 1/2 -inch loaf pan ( I use 9x5 ) , dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess.
* Whisk eggs and oil together.
* In a large bowl , whisk together the flour , sugar , baking powder , baking soda , spices and salt . Rub the brown sugar between your palms into the bowl , breaking any lumps , then stir in .
* Pour the wet ingredients over dry , switch to a sturdy rubber spatula or wooden spoon and mix until blended - the batter will be very thick ( really more like a dough than a batter ) ( but in my part it's not that thick :D ) and not easily mixed , but persevere , it will soon come together .
* Stir in mango , raisins and zest . Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula .
* Bake the bread for 1 1/2 hours or until it is golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean . If the bread looks as if it's getting too brown as it bakes , cover loosely with a foil tent . Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before running a knife around the sides of the pan and unmolding .